The Scales of Loneliness: A Roundtable Discussion

The people taking part in this discussion are academics and journalists who have written on loneliness in both a UK and international context. Part of our aim in this discussion is to reflect on some of the common assumptions about loneliness, and to historicise how loneliness has been responded to in the past decade, particularly in the context of COVID-19. We reflect on the usefulness of loneliness as a cultural and social term, and the difficulty of establishing a general language for an emotional state that has such varied and expansive meanings. We also wanted to put some pressure on the common assumption either that technology generates loneliness or that technology can provide catch-all solutions for the lonely. Given that loneliness scales are seen by many to take the measure of loneliness, we discuss the limitations of these scales as well as thinking of such an emotional state within the framework of an epidemic. We talk about the ways that loneliness is thought of structurally, and the ways that it is individualised as personal feeling.